Farmer protests in Europe

Throughout 2024, farmers have continuously staged protests against their governments in the EU. Most of these protests were in response to farmers feeling targeted by government climate-change policies and legislation.

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Indeed, according to Intereconomics, while these protests were seemingly initiated by country-specific issues, “they have converged around a series of demands that call for a change in course in the direction set for Europe’s agricultural policy in the most recent revision of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and in the agricultural elements of the European Green Deal”.

The European farmer protests of 2024 can be traced back to the proposals of the Dutch government in late 2019 to reduce nitrogen emissions by half, which included decreasing livestock numbers in the country by a third, Intereconomics explained.